Wind farm application to be submitted soon

An application for a permit to build an offshore wind farm on Sikka l-Bajda will be filed with the Malta Environment and Planning Authority in the coming days, The Times has learnt.

The Ministry for Resources and Rural Affairs confirmed that, after the application is submitted, the necessary environmental impact assessments will be carried out and wind-speed measurements will be taken.

Sikka l-Bajda is a reef located about two kilometres off Aħrax Point, in Mellieħa, where there are shallow waters on a stretch of about seven square kilometres of sea.

Experts have suggested that about 15 large wind turbines (about 100 metres diameter) could be located at this site. This could produce about 10 per cent of Malta's energy needs.

An environmentalist said that for a company to invest in a wind farm it would first need to know the measurements of wind speed for a period of between six months and a year before establishing whether the project would be financially feasible.

According to the ministry, information about wind resource at a given location can be estimated from a number of sources, including "regional climate data and local meteorological data, as well as computer modelling".

"This information is sufficient to yield indicative estimates for the likely energy yield from the proposed development. However, these will eventually need to be followed by a site-specific wind measurement campaign to be able to quantify the local wind resource with a higher level of certainty."

In the coming weeks, the ministry plans to launch a project intended to collect high quality wind data in the area of Sikka l-Bajda.

According to the government, the wind energy farm at Sikka l-Bajda would provide around four per cent of Malta's energy requirements. The project has been controversial because of the chosen location and the fact that offshore wind farms are more expensive and risky than land-based farms.

cperegin@timesofmalta.com